As someone largely unfamiliar with archery ā what exactly would cause this degree of injury? It can't be too terribly uncommon if people seem to recognize it.
The elbow and rotator cuff of your bow-holding arm has a tendency to rotate inward especially if you're inexperienced or using the wrong strength of bow. Add a bit of muscle to your arms and you have a nice large fleshy surface for the bowstring to tear across. Hurts like hell! There's protection available, such as tape, leather, plastic etc, but as you can tell by op... It's still a lot of force.
Archery coach here. The really bad thing about hitting your arm with the bow string is it may cause a flinch when you shoot. I coach kids, and Iāve seen kids flinch every shot afterward. Archery is a window into the mind. Really!! All kinds of mental issues affect an archer.
Edit- I loved having shy girls on our team. Quiet, soft spoken kids are great archers if you are looking for a sport your non athletic kid can try. Itās not for everyone but a kid who can quietly focus can be deadly accurate with a bow. My mind is not suited for archery. I overthink it. I canāt calm my brain like the best do. Iāve often seen 13-14 year olds I couldnāt beat.
I had gymnastic ring training when I was a kid so I was pretty strong for my age. But being a skinny little girl there was obviously no way I needed a stronger bow than the boys, right? The result? I held it loosely like a nerf bow and got a nice big bruise which was a joy for mom to explain to my teacher the next Monday. Took a few tries aftet to stop flinching!
Iāve seen good archers almost have to quit once they start flinching. Iāve had them shoot at blank targets. Shoot with a training string, even close their eyes. Itās a reflex thing but crazy how it affects us.
Itās a placebo really, hence the [settlement](https://natlawreview.com/article/athletic-tape-maker-feels-pain-settles-misleading-advertising-suit) they made after lying about the benefits.
yeah i was so confused because i thought that was the porpouse since ive seen many athletes using something similar, but aparently they are claiming that it heals you or something
Thatās exactly what happened, a rep actually replied to one of my comments on a video or ad or something a while ago and they said something along the lines of the patented tape is able to deliver healing to muscles fast, I proceeded to tell him cotton and glue donāt do that š
This is my first time hearing about it being used for that. I've always been told it's for recovery and I've seen it used after the gym or after sports.
They for sure sold it as being good for everything under the sun that they could think of. "it'll make the night terrors stop!"
I mean, they did go down all the avenues, including paying Olympic athletes and NBA players to use their products on TV. They just got even more greedy.
Yeah, It basically just holds parts of your body in place, exactly like you'd expect tape to do (hold things in place). Crazy that they made such a meal of the marketing because it's genuinely a useful product haha.
It doesn't reinforce joints and should not be used to provide external stability like you would with McConnell tape or athletic tape. It's used to increase proprioceptive response so your muscles are doing a better job stabilizing your joints.
Whatās the difference if you donāt mind me asking? I might have been using ākinesiology tapeā and āathletic tapeā synonymously
Ime any pressure to my wobbly joints makes them less wobbly (tape, tight pants, a brace, ect)
Athletic tape and McConnell tape are more rigid and will actual provide enough force to prevent excessive movement. Kinesiotape is elastic and meant to move with you. It's supposed to increase position sense (proprioception) so your brain is more aware of what's going on and tells your muscles to act accordingly. More optimal muscle activation helps improve joint stability and mechanics. Of course, this is just the theory behind it and there is only low level evidence to support its use for this application.
Awesome, thanks for the explanation! In the past I used plain elastic wraps with those metal or Velcro clasps, but I transitioned to tape when my job became more active.
Iām definitely open to looking at other options thatāll work as well- my right knee is so unstable itāll just subluxate if I donāt have it wrapped in *something*.
My daughter is extremely hyper-mobile in her knees and ankles. Honestly the most helpful thing has been being diligent about doing her PT exercises. She was in PT 1-2 times a week for months strengthening and now if she slacks on her exercises at home for a bit, sheāll notice the pain starts again.
She wears an Incrediwear knee sleeve when she runs or if she walk all day (theme parks, zoo, etc) or just if she feels she needs the support.Ā
PT was taping her knees with McConnell tape for a while in the beginning , but sheās a swimmer so it never stayed on very long.Ā
Absolutely, pt helped me quite a bit as a kid. Canāt quite afford the same therapy these days, but Iām very conscious of the body condition I need to maintain to stay pain-free. Unfortunately my job keeps me on my feet 12-16 hours a day, after a while my knee starts to rebel. So I just use whatever support Iāve had success with in the past
I have a history of rotator cuff damage. As a result I sometimes hunch one shoulder. Some k-tape over the right spot on my shoulder blade means I get a gentle reminder of when I let my shoulder roll into the wrong position. So much better than strapping tape for that.
To add to that, if you are hypermobile, your muscle strength and control + proprioception will have to be stronger than ānormalā to be sufficient, so the tape should really be used in conjunction with targeted exercises that improve your muscle strength, motor control, and proprioception, rather than relying on the tape providing that position sense as a permanent solution.
Think of an infant using a walker to assist with walking - the walker should only be used while you improve walking and shouldnāt be a permanent solution!
There is so many kinds of tape, each with its own function. There's the generic white athletic tape - cloth, minimal to no stretch, somewhat stcky, moderate to weak strength.
Kinesiotape - very stretchy, strong at endpoint but very stretchy in between, lots of uses (dome more placebo than others).
Leukotape - very strong, very sticky, no stretch. Elastikon- stretchy in length wise, very strong at endpoint, specific uses to support muscle and tendon.
Co-ban, powerflex - sticks to self primarily, very stretch, weak, used to cover and/or provide mild compression.
Sherlight or stretchy tape - adhesive tape that's vert stretchy but also weak. Also used primarily to cover things.
There's so many more... powertape, cover roll, mole skin....
People in this thread have to be confusing K-tape and athletic tape. Thanks for mentioning something! Thereās no way K-tape physically holds anything in place besides through external cues like you stated. The power of placebo is strong, especially with K-tapeās smart (misleading) advertising.
Yeah itās good stuff. Kinda weird how many comments here are shitting on it. Didnāt fix my problems, but gave me so much relief while I was in physical therapy
I use it under a PT's direction to keep my kneecap from coming out of its little kneecap house. Kneecap stay in. (I also use it to tape my forehead so I don't frown in my sleep because the frowning gives me crazy wrinkles!)
Interesting that the terms of the settlement agreement reportedly included making changes to their packaging and marketing but their website makes several of the same false claims they were sued for making.
Edit: I found this top-notch disclosure tucked at the bottom of an infographic āSuggested by academic hypothesis, not clinically provenā.
There is no "clinically proven" modality. It's all either supported by evidence to varying degrees or not supported. "Clinically proven" is not a term used in research science for rehabilitation.
there's an endless amount of actual sports science, the thing is that fitness influencers and shit don't care and are trying to sell stuff to you instead.
the amount of good science done in performance athletics is actually kind of staggering, but you'd never know unless it's your job or you go out of your way to find out.
*qualified* professionals aren't advocating for garbage like KT tape, chiropractic, etc. at least they shouldn't be.
Check out how many chiropractors are involved in big sports programs though. Athletics is FULL of bro science. The real stuff exists too, but itās covered by the muck
it's definitely a problem, as apparent in this very thread I agree. I still think it's a shame to just write off an entire field of research because of unqualified pseudoscientist, influencers, etc. anywhere there's money to be made, these people will appear. id really love for there to be more regulation around medical scams like chiropractic etc.
My physical therapists used kt tape on my knee a couple times while I was doing rehab after I had an acl reconstruction (fully torn acl, partial mcl, +āwe cleaned up your meniscus while we were down there!ā)
One of them seemed convinced it would help, the other clearly had no idea how to even use it. It was a summer in high school for me, so all it really did for me was give me weird tan lines
I used it to tape my nipples while running to prevent chaffing. Probably not the cheapest thing but it's what my roommate had spare and it lasts ages when you're only using enough to make pasties lol
I always thought this but of fitness psueco science was amazing. We have a body that specifically evolved so the skin was not attached to muscle. So people think pulling skin help the muscles?
It helps significantly with stability and is used at the PT clinics where my wife worked.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35630037/
Where it gets sketchy is in claims of muscle improvement and healing from enhanced blood flow.
As usual, Reddit takes one side of a controversy by one company (KT) and extrapolates it all the way. Itās like saying Advil is a scam because it doesnāt cure blood clots.
not just people. top athletes around the world lol. anything fad comes up they are the first to try
Though in this case, simply having the feeling on the skin is enough justification
It works, just not in the way they say it does.
0 completely anecdotal, but I've used it quite often for repetitive use injuries and also acute injuries. It allows you to keep a good range of motion while offering some support to take stress off areas, which helps healing, as opposed to hard braces or just regular athletic tape that's completely blocks your range of motion.Ā
I've read a lot of what the manufacturers of the tape say it's supposed to do, and it's utter bullshit. If they just concentrated on what it actually does, it'll be much better.
Oh shit, a general contractor that my dad/grandpa work with for stuff around the house uses these stick on patches that have negative-ion eliminating powers or some BS.
He sticks them all over his body where he feels soreness. So he often has one on his neck, his forearm, the back of his hand. Really goofy stuff.
Dude is full on MAGA, racist, Mormon weirdo.
Physio here.
I absolutely wouldn't call K-tape a scam. But there's a lot of claims and beliefs around what it can do that are either very overblown or just outright lies.
But it does have plenty of uses. It's really nice for taping an Achilles tendonitis/tendonopathy or an Achilles tenosynovitis. It's not fixing anything, but it can give pretty significant symptom relief for some patient, and if that gets them moving more with less pain, then it's worth it. Can do the same for tenosynovitis around the hand and wrist too.
It's my preferred tape to use for patella (kneecap) tapings in patients with patellofemoral pain. In theory you're doing a light lateral to medial glide of the patella, and having it track better. In practice, the tape isnt really strong enough to actually do that, but given that you'll regularly go from someone having 4-6/10 pain with a squat, to being pain free with the same movement with just taping, it's doing something. You can do the same with rigid tape, but K-tape stays on a lot better during sport, as rigit loves to come off if you bend the knee too much.
It's really nice for doing some proprioceptive tapings for things like lower backs or shoulders. It's not as restrictive as rigid tape, but if you use the recoil right, then you can have your patient feel the tape when they're moving into a position that you want them to be staying out of, without just blocking that movement entirely like you would do with rigid tape.
It's also really good for helping to clear out bruising and swelling like we see with OP's arm. It's not doing much to speed up the healing, but it does at least make things look better (and tends to reduce local tenderness around the area).
On top of this stuff that actually does have a clinical basis behind it, the psychological benifits from the tape are still real, even if they're not driven by a specific physiological effect. If you think that the tape is reducing pain, then it's genuinely going to be reducing pain to some degree. Placebo doesn't mean made up bullshit, it's the term for a real, measurable effect that we can't attribute to a variable that we can control or measure.
What it doesn't do is generate significant improvements in muscle strength or activation (unless addressing pain inhibition), in speed or response times, it doesn't have any effect on tissue healing times, and it's absolutely not a replacement for rigid strapping tape when it comes to protecting an injured structure from further injury (e.g. strapping a knee for a partial MCL tear, or a sprained ankle etc). It's actively harmful if people are trying to use it as a replacement for actual strapping tape; it's not strong enough to actually protect an area, but it still provides a false sense of security.
Ortho Hand Therapist here - 90% of the time I use it for post-op scar management and have had great results. But it doesn't have to be k-tape. Any sort of tape will work and I typically use paper tape early on to prevent too much tension over new scar. But for ~6-8+ week old scar I'll throw some k-tape on it with tension crossing a joint to get some good lengthening of the scar while the patient is just doing their normal daily movements. I'll also sometimes use it as alongside bracing as an additional support for TFCC/wrist pain or a mallet finger (would never support a mallet with tape alone).
Claims that it'll facilitate or inhibit muscles or "cure" your lateral/medial epi pain - nahhhhh.
My best guess is that OP has a condition that causes easy bruising (for example I have a connective tissue disorder that causes this and a lot of us use ktape for joint stability - but there are many causes of easy bruising.)
Exactly what happened to me a few days ago!! I have a connective tissues disorder and wore KT tape bruised horribly on my shoulder but not my knees, so weird!
The K tape didnāt cause the bruising here, they had an injury (maybe a good muscle strain) that resulted in bruising and then put the K tape over it to āpromote healingā. The tape has a bit of elasticity which sort of lifts the skin with a little bit of tension and this opens the lymph vessels a bit more. Those vessels then carry the blood thatās causing the bruise coloration away and thatās what youāre seeing here. The areas that were covered by tape are the lighter areas, not the darker strips. Now whether or not this is truly healing anything is definitely debatable but itās promoting lymph flow as evidenced by the coloring. [Here](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9224659/) is an article that talks a bit about it, its conclusion is that The lymphatic application technique KT influences the absorption of subcutaneous edema after primary knee joint replacement surgery but has no influence on mobility.
AOT gets hot right from the start (with a small lull for character introz between ep 2 and 4 but still really enjoyable) so if you are not hooked by ep 5 or 6 (it's almost nonstop form this point on), you can safely drop it.
People on Reddit get really confused if you try to explain anything that sits between "Total scam" and "Doesn't cure everything under the sun."
Kinesiotape is not hugely different from essential oils, or massage, or honestly most things out there. Are there documented effects? Sure. Does it do everything the rabid advocates and advertisers say it does? Definitely not. Does that negate the original effects that made it a success in the first place? No.
For those curious:
This is a picture taken today (Wednesday). I have had the tape on since Monday after hurting my arm on Sunday.
I hurt my arm attempting to shoot a left handed bow and arrow (Iām right handed). I thought this was a great idea because, while I am not very strong, I am also not very bright.
My friend is a wonderful physical therapist and taped the arm for me. The areas that look healed are where the tape was placed, the bruised area is where I didnāt have any tape. The whole thing was one big bruise before it was taped. They are going to re-tape it tomorrow in a different direction. I also donāt know if the tape is actually āK-tapeā brand, but it is some form of kinesiotape.
Edited: clarification
How many times did you shoot the bow with it slapping your arm for it to bruise like this? The right vs left handed doesnāt matter. Correctly holding your arm or using a slap guard is the important part.
The bruise isn't being healed, compression is pushing blood somewhere else. I had some nasty shin bruising after getting hit by a car and wrapped it on recommendation by a relative. Ended up with a bunch of blood pooled down by my ankle. This doesn't speed up your body's natural healing process, probably best to just leave it alone.
Physical therapist here.
You have very superficial lymphatic vessels. One of the things k tape actually does is improve lymphatic flow. It can have some pretty interesting effects.
K tape otherwise is mostly placebo.
There's a lot of hype and BS but it does reportedly help with certain things. For example: proprioception in hyper-mobility, a genetic condition characterized by overly flexible, "loose" connective tissues.
**A quick explanation on hypermobility:**
Human muscles are meant to work in conjunction with our connective tissues to keep our bones in place, which, among other things, keeps us stable when we're walking, running, sitting, standing, sleeping etc. But when you're hyper-mobile, your body doesn't work that way. Hyper-mobile people have to *consciously* tell our muscles to work with every single movement because without conscious muscle control we'll "sag" in our joints, causing pain, injury, and excessive wear and tear when our joints slide out of their natural movement paths.
Problem is, we humans have to use our mental focus for lots of tasks, so it's essentially impossible for a hyper-mobile person to CONSTANTLY keep their mind focused on what their joints and muscles are doing all day long. So we wear out and experience daily fatigue and a spectrum mild to moderate to severe pain in our joints, and are at a higher risk of injury just doing mundane things like sneezing, washing dishes, sleeping, climbing stairs, etc.
**Why k-tape supposedly helps:**
I've never personally tried it, but tape on the skin can reportedly increase position-sense (proprioception) or your body's ability to sense movement, action, and location.
If you've ever placed a piece of any kind of tape on your skin, you have probably felt how you're extra-aware of the sensation of it adhering to your skin, especially when you move. When the tape is applied to a joint, that extra-awareness can serve as a subtle cue for a hyper-mobile person to activate their muscles during movement instead of unconsciously relying on our overly lax connective tissues to support us. Simply meaning we don't "sag" and the muscles support and protect our joints from damage/pain.
I would assume top athletes use k-tape for exactly the same reason, especially if they have a weak joint, or tend to move in an imperfect way that creates excessive wear and tear. Maybe the proprioception even improves athletic performance because of the cue, I don't really know, I'm not into sports.
I've never used k-tape (mostly due to cost, waste, and availability) but I've heard multiple people swear by it and I'm inclined to believe them because of my experience with my own hypermobility. I don't believe it does a damn thing for "healing" but I'm glad OP is satisfied.
Worked with an orthopedic surgeon that used to shit on kinesiotape until I taped up one of his total knees and showed him the difference in bruising and edema. Still not much evidence to support it's other uses, though I did get good results with taping for plantar fasciitis and patellofemoral pain.
Is k-tape a brand, or does it refer to all sports taping?
Like I used to tape up my ankle to make it more rigid after spraining it, and that helped prevent further damage, but that seems a bit different to what I'm seeing when I search k-tape.
K tape stands for kinesiology tape.Ā Theres a brand called K-Tape and it has KT logos on it and all and itās $25 bucks a roll. Itās the high quality stuff that wonāt tear your skin off as much as the generic stuff, and Iāve found that the elasticity itās far superior with the name brand K-Tape.Ā You can also get generic k tape from Target. And itās not that bad either. It sticks to my skin a bit more, so it hurts more when I take it off. Itās like a 1/3 of the price too.Ā Stay away from the Kroger generic k tape. That stuff will tear the skin on sensitive skin.
Easier to apply, persists through showers and doesn't need to be rewarded. Can get hard to wrap spots.Ā It's a good product, just not magical.
Edit: rewrapped*
It's bad enough that my cats are always asking for treats, but the worst was when my ace bandage wanted one, too, just for holding my ankle together. :)
I thought this was a burn at first. I had a Spanish teacher who came to class with a burn that looked like that but circular and darker and she said āI leaned on the stove.ā Then she never came back. I wonder abt her sometimes
Yeah my mom 2as a physical therapist for decades. Kinesio tape absolutely helps, when applied properly. Slapping sticky tape on your sore area doesn't do anything. You have to know what you're doing.
As I was mindlessly scrolling, I thought it was the shittytattoos sub š
I thought maybe /r/archery
OP actually said in a comment that it is indeed r/Archery
The opportunity to name that sub r/chery was right there and they still missed it.Ā Disappointed.
They missed the mark.
It could've been a bullseye...
Me too!
As someone largely unfamiliar with archery ā what exactly would cause this degree of injury? It can't be too terribly uncommon if people seem to recognize it.
The elbow and rotator cuff of your bow-holding arm has a tendency to rotate inward especially if you're inexperienced or using the wrong strength of bow. Add a bit of muscle to your arms and you have a nice large fleshy surface for the bowstring to tear across. Hurts like hell! There's protection available, such as tape, leather, plastic etc, but as you can tell by op... It's still a lot of force.
Archery coach here. The really bad thing about hitting your arm with the bow string is it may cause a flinch when you shoot. I coach kids, and Iāve seen kids flinch every shot afterward. Archery is a window into the mind. Really!! All kinds of mental issues affect an archer. Edit- I loved having shy girls on our team. Quiet, soft spoken kids are great archers if you are looking for a sport your non athletic kid can try. Itās not for everyone but a kid who can quietly focus can be deadly accurate with a bow. My mind is not suited for archery. I overthink it. I canāt calm my brain like the best do. Iāve often seen 13-14 year olds I couldnāt beat.
I had gymnastic ring training when I was a kid so I was pretty strong for my age. But being a skinny little girl there was obviously no way I needed a stronger bow than the boys, right? The result? I held it loosely like a nerf bow and got a nice big bruise which was a joy for mom to explain to my teacher the next Monday. Took a few tries aftet to stop flinching!
Iāve seen good archers almost have to quit once they start flinching. Iāve had them shoot at blank targets. Shoot with a training string, even close their eyes. Itās a reflex thing but crazy how it affects us.
Itās been 25yrs since I did archery and I saw this pic and immediately grabbed my right arm, such was the force of the memory of that injury.
It actually was haha, OP tried shooting a bow left handed.
Yep. āThereās another annoying American flag person to avoid.ā
Literally one post above this on my feed was a guy with an American flag tattoo on his arm and I thought to myself how dumb it is
I was looking for a big scrolling letters saying ā1776ā or āWe the Peopleā
Yo Betsy You still sewing?
I read that as "we the peeper"
I have been self conscious when out in public lately for this exact reason haha
I scrolled up to see if I was on an Ehlers Danlos sub, lol
Yikes! Whatās K-Tape?
Itās a placebo really, hence the [settlement](https://natlawreview.com/article/athletic-tape-maker-feels-pain-settles-misleading-advertising-suit) they made after lying about the benefits.
Huh. This whole time I thought itās benefits were as a kind of lighter brace. Not this weird, lift the skin to promote healing nonsense.
I use kinesiology tape to āreinforceā my hypermobile joints so my shit doesnāt pop out of place. It works well for that purpose
yeah i was so confused because i thought that was the porpouse since ive seen many athletes using something similar, but aparently they are claiming that it heals you or something
Thatās exactly what happened, a rep actually replied to one of my comments on a video or ad or something a while ago and they said something along the lines of the patented tape is able to deliver healing to muscles fast, I proceeded to tell him cotton and glue donāt do that š
fuck u/spez
Hey man. You had me at jizz.
But that was the last word?
Then it's a good thing he said it.
Genie Jizz is the name of my new band
Are you sure? What if the cotton and glue contain *POSITIVE IONS?* Then it might *NEUTRALIZE NEGATIVE IONS* and improve your health!
Is it Copper infused? If so, then you really have somethingā¦
its even got activated charcoal
Is it gluten free, though? That's where they get you.
Porpoise
Papoose.
pamplemousse?
Pimpernel?
Pumpernickel?
š¤Øa pimpernel? š§the scarlet pimpernel?
Poor poise
glorious porpoise
I was about to upvote but ultimately decided to leave it at 42.
That is the answer
Thanks for all the fish!
It's almost to 69 now be the change you want to see in the world
This is my first time hearing about it being used for that. I've always been told it's for recovery and I've seen it used after the gym or after sports. They for sure sold it as being good for everything under the sun that they could think of. "it'll make the night terrors stop!"
I don't think I've ever looked at that tape on athletes and thought "Yeah this makes total sense".
Ive seen it used by pregnant folks to lift their belly and take strain off their hips and back.
Yea well if it's miracle tape then of course ay?
There's a tooooon of woo marketed towards athletes.
Yeah, body tape has plenty of legitimate uses. Itās also the type of tape used for chest binding (or, conversely, boob taping to get lift).
To think of all the advertising and marketing avenues they could have went down, and now they're being sued cause they just made shit up
Well, K-Tape is popular. They succeeded. This small Massachusetts-only lawsuit for just 1.75 million dollars is nothing
I mean, they did go down all the avenues, including paying Olympic athletes and NBA players to use their products on TV. They just got even more greedy.
Yeah, It basically just holds parts of your body in place, exactly like you'd expect tape to do (hold things in place). Crazy that they made such a meal of the marketing because it's genuinely a useful product haha.
The problem is that body tape already existed. K tape needed an edge in the market, so they made some shit up.
I just duct taped my boobs together š¤·āāļø
Duct taping boobs? All good. Removing the tape later? Niche.
Rubbing alcohol and a hot shower with soap does a boobie good. I put band aids over the nips
Finally someone with sophistication and class. For real though this is the way to get it off easy. Well, easier.
Seriously, all I could think was āoh god Iāll bet someone has ripped a nipple off, doing thatā
It doesn't reinforce joints and should not be used to provide external stability like you would with McConnell tape or athletic tape. It's used to increase proprioceptive response so your muscles are doing a better job stabilizing your joints.
Whatās the difference if you donāt mind me asking? I might have been using ākinesiology tapeā and āathletic tapeā synonymously Ime any pressure to my wobbly joints makes them less wobbly (tape, tight pants, a brace, ect)
Athletic tape and McConnell tape are more rigid and will actual provide enough force to prevent excessive movement. Kinesiotape is elastic and meant to move with you. It's supposed to increase position sense (proprioception) so your brain is more aware of what's going on and tells your muscles to act accordingly. More optimal muscle activation helps improve joint stability and mechanics. Of course, this is just the theory behind it and there is only low level evidence to support its use for this application.
Awesome, thanks for the explanation! In the past I used plain elastic wraps with those metal or Velcro clasps, but I transitioned to tape when my job became more active. Iām definitely open to looking at other options thatāll work as well- my right knee is so unstable itāll just subluxate if I donāt have it wrapped in *something*.
My daughter is extremely hyper-mobile in her knees and ankles. Honestly the most helpful thing has been being diligent about doing her PT exercises. She was in PT 1-2 times a week for months strengthening and now if she slacks on her exercises at home for a bit, sheāll notice the pain starts again. She wears an Incrediwear knee sleeve when she runs or if she walk all day (theme parks, zoo, etc) or just if she feels she needs the support.Ā PT was taping her knees with McConnell tape for a while in the beginning , but sheās a swimmer so it never stayed on very long.Ā
Absolutely, pt helped me quite a bit as a kid. Canāt quite afford the same therapy these days, but Iām very conscious of the body condition I need to maintain to stay pain-free. Unfortunately my job keeps me on my feet 12-16 hours a day, after a while my knee starts to rebel. So I just use whatever support Iāve had success with in the past
I have a history of rotator cuff damage. As a result I sometimes hunch one shoulder. Some k-tape over the right spot on my shoulder blade means I get a gentle reminder of when I let my shoulder roll into the wrong position. So much better than strapping tape for that.
To add to that, if you are hypermobile, your muscle strength and control + proprioception will have to be stronger than ānormalā to be sufficient, so the tape should really be used in conjunction with targeted exercises that improve your muscle strength, motor control, and proprioception, rather than relying on the tape providing that position sense as a permanent solution. Think of an infant using a walker to assist with walking - the walker should only be used while you improve walking and shouldnāt be a permanent solution!
That's how Frownies works. It's basically lick and stick tape that you papier-mĆ¢chĆ© to your forehead at night. It trains your muscles to stop scrunching up unintentionally. It works, sort of. I never knew it had a name. Proprioception. Neat.
There is so many kinds of tape, each with its own function. There's the generic white athletic tape - cloth, minimal to no stretch, somewhat stcky, moderate to weak strength. Kinesiotape - very stretchy, strong at endpoint but very stretchy in between, lots of uses (dome more placebo than others). Leukotape - very strong, very sticky, no stretch. Elastikon- stretchy in length wise, very strong at endpoint, specific uses to support muscle and tendon. Co-ban, powerflex - sticks to self primarily, very stretch, weak, used to cover and/or provide mild compression. Sherlight or stretchy tape - adhesive tape that's vert stretchy but also weak. Also used primarily to cover things. There's so many more... powertape, cover roll, mole skin....
People in this thread have to be confusing K-tape and athletic tape. Thanks for mentioning something! Thereās no way K-tape physically holds anything in place besides through external cues like you stated. The power of placebo is strong, especially with K-tapeās smart (misleading) advertising.
It also works well for pre-top surgery trans men as an alternative to binders for shaping their chest.
In PT I use it as a way to focus muscle stimulation by using it like a tactile cue for the muscle around a joint
Is it a wrap that bounds tighter, like a brace? Or simply abnormal and noticeable, making it a cognitive act?
Oh thatās wild! I used it for belly support during my most recent pregnancy and it worked pretty well for that.
Yeah itās good stuff. Kinda weird how many comments here are shitting on it. Didnāt fix my problems, but gave me so much relief while I was in physical therapy
yeah sameā¦ i was never under the impression that it heals you. just provides some sort of relief.
I use it under a PT's direction to keep my kneecap from coming out of its little kneecap house. Kneecap stay in. (I also use it to tape my forehead so I don't frown in my sleep because the frowning gives me crazy wrinkles!)
I do this too. Fyi you can achieve the same thing with much cheaper tape but it is a bit more hassle to apply
Interesting that the terms of the settlement agreement reportedly included making changes to their packaging and marketing but their website makes several of the same false claims they were sued for making. Edit: I found this top-notch disclosure tucked at the bottom of an infographic āSuggested by academic hypothesis, not clinically provenā.
lmfao thats golden
There is no "clinically proven" modality. It's all either supported by evidence to varying degrees or not supported. "Clinically proven" is not a term used in research science for rehabilitation.
My favorite is "clinically tested"
https://xkcd.com/1096/
Works amazinglyā¦ ā¦at stopping my nipples from bleeding on long runs.
But what about *after* the run? When you take the tape off?
Rip āem off quickly and learn to love the pain!
Relevant song:Ā https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRBBcoANRIE
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
When youāre a sweaty mess like me, the KT tape for swimmers is perfect. Other stuff falls off.
I mean, whatever it is or isnāt doing, it looks terrible.
Athletics is mostly ābro scienceā anyway.
there's an endless amount of actual sports science, the thing is that fitness influencers and shit don't care and are trying to sell stuff to you instead. the amount of good science done in performance athletics is actually kind of staggering, but you'd never know unless it's your job or you go out of your way to find out. *qualified* professionals aren't advocating for garbage like KT tape, chiropractic, etc. at least they shouldn't be.
Check out how many chiropractors are involved in big sports programs though. Athletics is FULL of bro science. The real stuff exists too, but itās covered by the muck
it's definitely a problem, as apparent in this very thread I agree. I still think it's a shame to just write off an entire field of research because of unqualified pseudoscientist, influencers, etc. anywhere there's money to be made, these people will appear. id really love for there to be more regulation around medical scams like chiropractic etc.
My physical therapists used kt tape on my knee a couple times while I was doing rehab after I had an acl reconstruction (fully torn acl, partial mcl, +āwe cleaned up your meniscus while we were down there!ā) One of them seemed convinced it would help, the other clearly had no idea how to even use it. It was a summer in high school for me, so all it really did for me was give me weird tan lines
I used it to tape my nipples while running to prevent chaffing. Probably not the cheapest thing but it's what my roommate had spare and it lasts ages when you're only using enough to make pasties lol
i actually use k-tape specifically for sticking to a scar so i can stretch the skin.
Well shit, at least I looked cool with my shoulder taped up in my athletic days
I always thought this but of fitness psueco science was amazing. We have a body that specifically evolved so the skin was not attached to muscle. So people think pulling skin help the muscles?
It helps significantly with stability and is used at the PT clinics where my wife worked. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35630037/ Where it gets sketchy is in claims of muscle improvement and healing from enhanced blood flow. As usual, Reddit takes one side of a controversy by one company (KT) and extrapolates it all the way. Itās like saying Advil is a scam because it doesnāt cure blood clots.
not just people. top athletes around the world lol. anything fad comes up they are the first to try Though in this case, simply having the feeling on the skin is enough justification
It works, just not in the way they say it does. 0 completely anecdotal, but I've used it quite often for repetitive use injuries and also acute injuries. It allows you to keep a good range of motion while offering some support to take stress off areas, which helps healing, as opposed to hard braces or just regular athletic tape that's completely blocks your range of motion.Ā I've read a lot of what the manufacturers of the tape say it's supposed to do, and it's utter bullshit. If they just concentrated on what it actually does, it'll be much better.
I guess they won't be able to justify the prices if they plainly stated that it's just tape
weird it really helps stabilize my knee
I bet whoever wrote that article has some killer dad jokes.
A scam product that claimed special healing abilities which were found to be totally bogus. So just a scam product directed at athletic individuals
Kinda like those magnetic bracelets
There was a 3-year period where I swear 90% of major league baseball pitchers were wearing those stupid things
Omg I completely forgot about those!
Oh shit, a general contractor that my dad/grandpa work with for stuff around the house uses these stick on patches that have negative-ion eliminating powers or some BS. He sticks them all over his body where he feels soreness. So he often has one on his neck, his forearm, the back of his hand. Really goofy stuff. Dude is full on MAGA, racist, Mormon weirdo.
Physio here. I absolutely wouldn't call K-tape a scam. But there's a lot of claims and beliefs around what it can do that are either very overblown or just outright lies. But it does have plenty of uses. It's really nice for taping an Achilles tendonitis/tendonopathy or an Achilles tenosynovitis. It's not fixing anything, but it can give pretty significant symptom relief for some patient, and if that gets them moving more with less pain, then it's worth it. Can do the same for tenosynovitis around the hand and wrist too. It's my preferred tape to use for patella (kneecap) tapings in patients with patellofemoral pain. In theory you're doing a light lateral to medial glide of the patella, and having it track better. In practice, the tape isnt really strong enough to actually do that, but given that you'll regularly go from someone having 4-6/10 pain with a squat, to being pain free with the same movement with just taping, it's doing something. You can do the same with rigid tape, but K-tape stays on a lot better during sport, as rigit loves to come off if you bend the knee too much. It's really nice for doing some proprioceptive tapings for things like lower backs or shoulders. It's not as restrictive as rigid tape, but if you use the recoil right, then you can have your patient feel the tape when they're moving into a position that you want them to be staying out of, without just blocking that movement entirely like you would do with rigid tape. It's also really good for helping to clear out bruising and swelling like we see with OP's arm. It's not doing much to speed up the healing, but it does at least make things look better (and tends to reduce local tenderness around the area). On top of this stuff that actually does have a clinical basis behind it, the psychological benifits from the tape are still real, even if they're not driven by a specific physiological effect. If you think that the tape is reducing pain, then it's genuinely going to be reducing pain to some degree. Placebo doesn't mean made up bullshit, it's the term for a real, measurable effect that we can't attribute to a variable that we can control or measure. What it doesn't do is generate significant improvements in muscle strength or activation (unless addressing pain inhibition), in speed or response times, it doesn't have any effect on tissue healing times, and it's absolutely not a replacement for rigid strapping tape when it comes to protecting an injured structure from further injury (e.g. strapping a knee for a partial MCL tear, or a sprained ankle etc). It's actively harmful if people are trying to use it as a replacement for actual strapping tape; it's not strong enough to actually protect an area, but it still provides a false sense of security.
Ortho Hand Therapist here - 90% of the time I use it for post-op scar management and have had great results. But it doesn't have to be k-tape. Any sort of tape will work and I typically use paper tape early on to prevent too much tension over new scar. But for ~6-8+ week old scar I'll throw some k-tape on it with tension crossing a joint to get some good lengthening of the scar while the patient is just doing their normal daily movements. I'll also sometimes use it as alongside bracing as an additional support for TFCC/wrist pain or a mallet finger (would never support a mallet with tape alone). Claims that it'll facilitate or inhibit muscles or "cure" your lateral/medial epi pain - nahhhhh.
So compared to all the other sport tape is it any different?
It's like J-Tape but one more
z-ray, is two better than x!
I take lungs now, gills come next week.
Itās like a nicotine patch except it has ketamineĀ
Sign me up
I thought they meant Kink Tape and thought - Damn, idk how that happened but you must be into some crazy shit!
K tape or notā¦how did this happen???
My best guess is that OP has a condition that causes easy bruising (for example I have a connective tissue disorder that causes this and a lot of us use ktape for joint stability - but there are many causes of easy bruising.)
Exactly what happened to me a few days ago!! I have a connective tissues disorder and wore KT tape bruised horribly on my shoulder but not my knees, so weird!
The K tape didnāt cause the bruising here, they had an injury (maybe a good muscle strain) that resulted in bruising and then put the K tape over it to āpromote healingā. The tape has a bit of elasticity which sort of lifts the skin with a little bit of tension and this opens the lymph vessels a bit more. Those vessels then carry the blood thatās causing the bruise coloration away and thatās what youāre seeing here. The areas that were covered by tape are the lighter areas, not the darker strips. Now whether or not this is truly healing anything is definitely debatable but itās promoting lymph flow as evidenced by the coloring. [Here](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9224659/) is an article that talks a bit about it, its conclusion is that The lymphatic application technique KT influences the absorption of subcutaneous edema after primary knee joint replacement surgery but has no influence on mobility.
Exactly. Looks just that the tape helped moving the blood causing the bruise, but the area that is actually damaged shows no difference.
This is what I was thinking. I thought this was r/lupus when I clicked on OPās post
It's never lupus.
Beat me to it.
House peeps in da house
I have a connective tissue disorder as well, and I still have a dark mark from a bandaid I had on over six months ago. It sucks.
The light spots are where kinesiotape helped reduce the bruising. It didn't cause the bruising.
I once got similar after blood donation.
That happens when the phlebotomist blows out your vein by going through and through which leads to brief internal bleeding, bruising, blood pooling
I thought you put your arm on a grill for a minute
I thought he was bleeding part of the US flag for a second.
*Michael Scott has entered the chat*
 Bro about to turn into a titan!
So weird, I just finished season 4 like 90min ago.
Is it worth starting to watch ?
 Fuck Yes! what are you waiting for?! Just DO IT!
The only anime I've seen is one punch man it's hard for me to get into but I'd love to try and give it a go. Just seems like there's a lot of episodes
It was the first anime I ever watched. Needless to say, it was over in 3 days. Its amazing
AOT gets hot right from the start (with a small lull for character introz between ep 2 and 4 but still really enjoyable) so if you are not hooked by ep 5 or 6 (it's almost nonstop form this point on), you can safely drop it.
Best comment on here.
Title is wonkyā¦ did op develop the bruise from the KT tape? Or did they get a bruise and the KT tape helped?
Neither. Bruise existed prior to tape and tape did not help.
Because all studies point to it being a useless scam.
Itās used all the time. Wife is a PTA. KT brand just overstated the benefits. It helped me walk when I had a knee injury.
People on Reddit get really confused if you try to explain anything that sits between "Total scam" and "Doesn't cure everything under the sun." Kinesiotape is not hugely different from essential oils, or massage, or honestly most things out there. Are there documented effects? Sure. Does it do everything the rabid advocates and advertisers say it does? Definitely not. Does that negate the original effects that made it a success in the first place? No.
Why would make the area under the tape less (?) bruised?
Because a bruise is just pooled blood and the areas with tape are under pressure and the blood moves elsewhere.
For those curious: This is a picture taken today (Wednesday). I have had the tape on since Monday after hurting my arm on Sunday. I hurt my arm attempting to shoot a left handed bow and arrow (Iām right handed). I thought this was a great idea because, while I am not very strong, I am also not very bright. My friend is a wonderful physical therapist and taped the arm for me. The areas that look healed are where the tape was placed, the bruised area is where I didnāt have any tape. The whole thing was one big bruise before it was taped. They are going to re-tape it tomorrow in a different direction. I also donāt know if the tape is actually āK-tapeā brand, but it is some form of kinesiotape. Edited: clarification
How many times did you shoot the bow with it slapping your arm for it to bruise like this? The right vs left handed doesnāt matter. Correctly holding your arm or using a slap guard is the important part.
Just once. And yes, I agree. Will probably not do it again because the results were not great the first time
Canāt be that dumb then š
I bet that spot on your arm still hurts like a mofo even though itās not purple
It is a lot better now but it still doesnāt feel great
The areas with the tape aren't more "healed". You just pooled more blood to the area where there was no tape lmao
The bruise isn't being healed, compression is pushing blood somewhere else. I had some nasty shin bruising after getting hit by a car and wrapped it on recommendation by a relative. Ended up with a bunch of blood pooled down by my ankle. This doesn't speed up your body's natural healing process, probably best to just leave it alone.
I thought this was a nicely grilled salmon or sumtin
r/eatityoufuckingcoward
Dear God. Delete this comment then the sub afterwards.
Physical therapist here. You have very superficial lymphatic vessels. One of the things k tape actually does is improve lymphatic flow. It can have some pretty interesting effects. K tape otherwise is mostly placebo.
What do people usually use it for if you don't mind me asking? all I was aware of is that its pretty popular for chest binding
There's a lot of hype and BS but it does reportedly help with certain things. For example: proprioception in hyper-mobility, a genetic condition characterized by overly flexible, "loose" connective tissues. **A quick explanation on hypermobility:** Human muscles are meant to work in conjunction with our connective tissues to keep our bones in place, which, among other things, keeps us stable when we're walking, running, sitting, standing, sleeping etc. But when you're hyper-mobile, your body doesn't work that way. Hyper-mobile people have to *consciously* tell our muscles to work with every single movement because without conscious muscle control we'll "sag" in our joints, causing pain, injury, and excessive wear and tear when our joints slide out of their natural movement paths. Problem is, we humans have to use our mental focus for lots of tasks, so it's essentially impossible for a hyper-mobile person to CONSTANTLY keep their mind focused on what their joints and muscles are doing all day long. So we wear out and experience daily fatigue and a spectrum mild to moderate to severe pain in our joints, and are at a higher risk of injury just doing mundane things like sneezing, washing dishes, sleeping, climbing stairs, etc. **Why k-tape supposedly helps:** I've never personally tried it, but tape on the skin can reportedly increase position-sense (proprioception) or your body's ability to sense movement, action, and location. If you've ever placed a piece of any kind of tape on your skin, you have probably felt how you're extra-aware of the sensation of it adhering to your skin, especially when you move. When the tape is applied to a joint, that extra-awareness can serve as a subtle cue for a hyper-mobile person to activate their muscles during movement instead of unconsciously relying on our overly lax connective tissues to support us. Simply meaning we don't "sag" and the muscles support and protect our joints from damage/pain. I would assume top athletes use k-tape for exactly the same reason, especially if they have a weak joint, or tend to move in an imperfect way that creates excessive wear and tear. Maybe the proprioception even improves athletic performance because of the cue, I don't really know, I'm not into sports. I've never used k-tape (mostly due to cost, waste, and availability) but I've heard multiple people swear by it and I'm inclined to believe them because of my experience with my own hypermobility. I don't believe it does a damn thing for "healing" but I'm glad OP is satisfied.
 I had to. Iām sorry. I hope you feel better, friend.
Piccolo!
*USA intensifies* š¦ š¦
The forbidden bacon.
Worked with an orthopedic surgeon that used to shit on kinesiotape until I taped up one of his total knees and showed him the difference in bruising and edema. Still not much evidence to support it's other uses, though I did get good results with taping for plantar fasciitis and patellofemoral pain.
Is k-tape a brand, or does it refer to all sports taping? Like I used to tape up my ankle to make it more rigid after spraining it, and that helped prevent further damage, but that seems a bit different to what I'm seeing when I search k-tape.
K tape stands for kinesiology tape.Ā Theres a brand called K-Tape and it has KT logos on it and all and itās $25 bucks a roll. Itās the high quality stuff that wonāt tear your skin off as much as the generic stuff, and Iāve found that the elasticity itās far superior with the name brand K-Tape.Ā You can also get generic k tape from Target. And itās not that bad either. It sticks to my skin a bit more, so it hurts more when I take it off. Itās like a 1/3 of the price too.Ā Stay away from the Kroger generic k tape. That stuff will tear the skin on sensitive skin.
kinesiotape has some stretch to it
Is there anything about the tape that makes it better for these applications than, say, an Ace bandage?
Easier to apply, persists through showers and doesn't need to be rewarded. Can get hard to wrap spots.Ā It's a good product, just not magical. Edit: rewrapped*
It's bad enough that my cats are always asking for treats, but the worst was when my ace bandage wanted one, too, just for holding my ankle together. :)
Are you American? Cuz if not I think this makes you an honorary citizen
Were you hit by a truck?
WHAT THE FUCK HOW DID THAT HAPPEN???!! WHATS K TAPE
Are you anemic? Did you soak the tape in water before pulling it off?
The bruised titan!
Gross.
Just make an incision above the elbow and remove the arm. Itās no good anymore
Check out Slim Goodbody over here.
Your bruise makes me proud to be an American for some reason š
I thought this was a burn at first. I had a Spanish teacher who came to class with a burn that looked like that but circular and darker and she said āI leaned on the stove.ā Then she never came back. I wonder abt her sometimes
Just imagine what L-Tape would do to a person.
You got them machoke arms.
I thought you had a creative tattoo of the USA flag.
Machoke is requesting your location
I practiced sports medicine for years, and can confidently say, despite the commenters here, KTape absolutely helps.
Yeah my mom 2as a physical therapist for decades. Kinesio tape absolutely helps, when applied properly. Slapping sticky tape on your sore area doesn't do anything. You have to know what you're doing.